Guitars have not drastically changed in their basic features since they were first developed. A guitar still includes a body, neck, and headstock. There has, however, been significant changes and improvements made to the component parts of the guitar, including the materials from which the guitar is made, improved pick-up design, and sound controls (for electric guitars), improvements in bracing (for acoustic guitars), and how the guitars are assembled. There have also been many changes to the ornamental appearance of the guitar.
While some of changes that have been made were dictated by attempts to simplify the assembly of the guitar for mass production, most of the changes have been designed to improve or vary the sound emitted by the guitar. The ornamental changes that have been made to guitars have, for the most part, been incorporated to create a unique appearance to the guitar line.
Very few changes have been made to the basic guitar to accommodate the artist using the guitar. In particular, other than design changes to the side or rim contour, the basic design of the body has not changed and still includes a flat rim, i.e., a rim which extends around the edge of the guitar in a single plane, and front and rear faces that are symmetric relative to the rim. FIG. 1A depicts the body of the Fender® Stratocaster® guitar. (Fender® and Stratocaster® are registered trademarks of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Scottsdale, Ariz.) The front and rear faces 1F, 1R of the guitar are substantially parallel to one another and lie in the same plane as the rim 2. FIG. 1B depicts the body of a Gibson® ES-335 guitar. (Gibson® is a registered trademark of the Gibson Guitar Corp., Nashville, Tenn.) As shown the rim edges 3 are parallel to one another and extend along a single plane. The front and rear faces 4F, 4R have slight curves that are substantially symmetrical about the rim 3. Most guitars fall into one of these categories of body design.
Also shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B is a schematic representation of the torso of a user of the guitar. As shown in the schematic, the rear face of the guitar body is positioned next to the player (simplistically depicted as lying against the front of the player's torso). The rims R of the guitar tend to extend along a flat plane lies at a right angle to a plane running from the player through the main playing zone of the guitar (generally in the proximity of the pickups) as shown. As a result, the heel H of the guitar body tends to stick out past the player's body. As a consequence, the player's arm needs to extend over the edge of the guitar body. During long periods of use, the player's arm begins to fatigue.
A need, therefore, exists for a more ergonomic guitar body design to help reduce player fatigue.